Endless Evolution: Last Star

Billions of scarlet spheres flowing amidst the viscous crimson liquid collided with the acid designed to digest food.

Inside each sphere, there was a dark, lifeless core that had long ago lost all of its power, but... was still a quality material that one had to know how to use.
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The outer shell of the spheres burst, allowing the cores to disappear into the flesh, literally becoming part of the body. However... always it led to only one result - inevitable death because even the drained blood of a monster was too dangerous for a normal person.

Though, even the Phantoms were not able to hold the monsters' energy inside them or interact with their blood or flesh in any way.

The only and most important difference between ordinary humans and Phantoms was that Phantoms could get rid of foreign energy or even suppress it for some purpose as in the case of regenerative monsters.

The cells spread throughout Nessa's body while Magnus stared at her intently hoping for results.

"ARGH!!!"

A torrent of blood gushed from Nessa's mouth, a painful grimace emerged on her face, and several of her organs were severely damaged - pieces of them simply exploded right before Magnus's eyes.

Magnus clenched his fists tightly, biting his lip until it bled. He realized what this meant - what always happened had happened, the human body couldn't withstand the monster genes that came through the blood, through the former energy carrier.

'Why the fuck am I nervous? Didn't I know the odds weren't just slim, they were nonexistent?' Magnus pondered, for he was actually acting strangely.

Any scientist, no, any military or departmental employee knew that this was doomed to failure. Many had tried to become Phantoms in various ways and drinking the blood of a monster was one of them. None had succeeded, so... everyone knew the consequences, especially Magnus.

Then why? Why did Magnus think this crazy idea would work this time? What made him believe it?

Well, the answer was obviously hidden in Nessa, but even Magnus didn't understand what exactly she did and why he was sure that she was the one who had a chance to be the first to survive in such a situation.

"Come on! If you were just an ordinary girl I wouldn't pay attention to you! Only something unique is worthy of my gaze!" Magnus exclaimed as he walked over to Nessa and grabbed her head firmly, forcing her to look at him.

At this time, Nessa's body was trying to find a way to work with the cells that were tearing Nessa's flesh apart. Her body was not trying to subjugate as Adam had done with the energy of the Bladeclaw Beast, but to become different parts of a single mechanism.

Sure, the human body was extremely complex, there were many processes inside, but... to whom all of them obeyed? Who was responsible for the famous placebo effect?

Brain.

The brain was capable of many things, but... the brain was much more powerful than intelligence. The brain makes a lot of mistakes, sometimes harming itself, but only the brain can make the human body perform real miracles.

It needed a stimulus, and strangely enough, the threat of death was not enough for the brain, since the brain was doing its best to keep Nessa alive, but it didn't realize that ignoring pain and focusing all resources on regeneration was not enough to survive this crisis.

Now, the only question left is, what would be the stimulus that would cause the brain to change the body's response so that Nessa's cells would start working with the monster's cells?

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Nessa's heart beat rapidly when amidst the murky veil before her eyes she could make out Magnus's silhouette. She couldn't see his face, only his shoulders, the long crimson coat covering his body, and his scarlet hair.

Then, Nessa's pupils narrowed and something strange began to happen to her brain, it came to work because of the impulse from Nessa's consciousness.

It wasn't about Magnus, or rather his similar appearance was the catalyst for Nessa's mind to recall an event that had happened years ago.

Like now, it had been painful, cold, and hard for her then. She was on death's doorstep, but not because of her condition as she was now, but because of the place she was in, behind the walls...

She could only see a silhouette, with scarlet hair and a crimson cover coming down, she couldn't make out if it was clothing, armor, skin, or something else.

Nessa's mind only had the strength for one thing - to remember how she felt about that silhouette at the time - awe.

She remembered nothing else, in any case, such a memory would surely find an opportunity to reappear in the future and reveal itself, exposing the silhouette and the incident behind the walls. The main thing now was something else - to survive, for everything ends in death.

"M... Mo... Monster..." Nessa mumbled with all her might, staring at the silhouette in her mind, even though Magnus was standing in front of her.

At the same moment, electric shocks ran through her brain, racing through her entire body with the sole purpose - to reach the silhouette and feel the awe at least one more time.

Her cells shuddered, somehow connecting perfectly with her blood cells as if the gears had been beating against each other with their cogs, but as soon as they turned slightly, everything fell into place.

Whooooooooooosh.

Before Magnus's eyes, Nessa's muscles grew tighter, her many wounds tried to heal as best they could, and the bleeding was forcibly stopped, though temporarily.

Magnus's eyes went wide. He needed to perform many tests to be fully convinced of the reality of this event, but... he already realized that it had truly happened.

Nessa's cells were able to fuse with the monster's cells.

That didn't make her a Phantom, for Phantoms were beings of another plane, they had their own genes, their energy, and their Evolution Tree. The Initial Gene was just the catalyst, the foundation that gave the initial form of the Phantom's development.

"If you're no longer human, but you're also not a Phantom, then what are you...? A monster?" Magnus muttered in disbelief, "No... You're both monster and human, you're a hybrid... the first in history..."

"Argh!!!"

Nessa spat out a clot of blood, with a painful grimace.

"I see... Well, that's even better. You didn't absorb the regenerative monster's energy, so... you didn't heal. You just got stronger, and that allows your body to stay on the brink of death for much longer. Good...

that's what makes you survive." Magnus nodded with a satisfied grin as he lifted Nessa into his arms and ran out of the room.

...

The treatment was long and difficult, even Magnus had to work hard to get Nessa to a healthy state considering the circumstances. Her body had gotten much stronger and required more resources and other methods, but Magnus was up to the task.

After all, there had never been a brighter fire burning in his eyes than when he was working with Nessa.

She wasn't just his most successful experiment and most important project. She was a masterpiece that in the future could become a hope for every mere human unable to fight back against monsters.

"Nessa..." Magnus muttered, looking at the girl in the massive healing pod, "I guess I wouldn't be wrong to call you a new path of evolution for humans... You're perfect."